March 3, 1975: The Homebrew Computer Club, a hobbyist group that helps spark the personal computing revolution, holds it first meeting in Menlo Park, California.
It becomes a welcome forum for computer geeks at a time when few others cared. And regular attendee Steve Wozniak and his friend Steve Jobs will eventually show off the first Apple-1 unit at the club.
December 8, 1975: San Francisco Bay Area entrepreneur Paul Terrell opens The Byte Shop, one of the world’s first computer stores — and the first to sell an Apple computer.
Years before Apple would open its own retail outlets, the Byte Shop stocks the first 50 Apple-1 computers built by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak.
An ultra-rare Apple-1, the first computer Apple ever produced as a company, is coming up for auction. And it’s signed by none other than designer and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak.
This Apple-1, one of only a handful of the computers thought to exist today, has been restored to an operational state. It comes in its original shipping box, making it an even less common specimen. It could be yours for no more than the price of a typical mid-priced American home.
November 23, 2010: An early Apple-1 computer, complete with its original packaging and a letter signed by Steve Jobs, sells for $210,000.
At the time, it ranks as the most expensive personal computer ever sold at auction. However, it’s a rare find. The working Apple-1 is thought to be one of only around 50 thought to still exist.
Russian company Caviar is known for producing blinged-out Apple devices that would make billionaire fat cats and 2000-era rappers say “that’s a bit over-the-top.”
But its latest creations, infinitely more humble and low-fi in appearance, are easily my favorite of its customized devices. Caviar will produce a pair of iPhone 12 models patterned after the original Apple-1 computer, as built in 1976.
April 11, 1976: Apple releases its first computer, the Apple-1.
Designed and hand-built by Steve Wozniak, the computers are sold wholesale by “Steven” Jobs. To finance their manufacturing, Wozniak sells his HP-65 calculator for $500, while Jobs sells his VW van. Years later, in 2014, a working Apple-1 will sell at auction for $905,000.
A fully functional and complete Apple-1 computer, hand-built by Apple founders Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs back in 1976, was auctioned off yesterday for over $458 thousand.
There are only a handful of these left. This particular unit appeared recently on the TV show Pawn Stars.
The original Apple-1 is rare, but an eBay auction going on now is for a nearly unique version with a wood case made by the Byte Shop. There are reportedly only 6 of these still in existence. That’s why the seller is asking a cool $1,750,000.
August 25, 2016: An ultra-rare Apple-1 computer raises $815,000 in a charity auction, one of the highest prices ever paid for one of the machines. Bidding actually reaches $1.2 million in the auction’s final minutes. However, that bid gets pulled seconds before a winner is announced.
The reason for the super-high price? This “Celebration” Apple-1 boasts a feature that did not appear on any production models of the computer.
Only 70 Apple 1 computers are known to exist. But collectors gathered twelve of them over the weekend for the annual Vintage Computer Festival West at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, Calif.
This is no small feat considering the fragility and rarity of the humble machine that launched a computing revolution — and one of the world’s most influential companies.
“They are the computers that started Apple,” Dag Spicer, senior curator for the museum, told Cult of Mac. “People are completely blown away.”
